


son, when you grow up...

by sugarcubeshiro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, M/M, Married Sheith, Not Season/Series 08 Compliant, Post-Season/Series 07, hello and welcome to kosmo's Actual Name reveal!, the rating is a VERY tame m for just some thoughts and memories in one short part
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 01:16:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19074520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarcubeshiro/pseuds/sugarcubeshiro
Summary: “Wait, what?” Hunk whirls around to face them, making Pidge squawk in surprise. She clamps her hands in his hair and glares down at Hunk over being interrupted from grabbing the peach she was reaching for, but then she snaps her head up to look at Keith as well.“…Yeah,” she says and squints her eyes, “what do you mean he’stoldyou?”“What do you mean what do I mean?” Keith frowns. “I mean just that. He’s told me his name now.”“Now hang on a sec.” Lance holds up a hand and shakes his head. “Are you trying to tell us that Kosmo seriouslytalks to you?”





	son, when you grow up...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pumpkinless](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pumpkinless/gifts).



> this was written as a birthday gift for [liz](https://twitter.com/disloyalpunk)—i'm so sorry it took a couple of days extra, it got like four times as long as i'd planned... u kno how sheith be... but ilysm & hope you enjoy even though it's a little bit late now!!!

Shiro’s lounging in the grass, leaning back against one of the huge peach trees in Hunk’s parents garden while enjoying the veggie burger he’s fixed up for their impromptu barbecue dinner. He’s just starting to wonder where everyone else went when he glances up from his plate of food and is met with the sight of Keith, stalking towards Shiro with his fists clenched at his sides.

Kosm— _the wolf_ trots after him, but it’s not the easy way he usually follows at Keith’s side. Instead the wolf is holding his head high, looking all haughty. When Keith flops down next to Shiro, the wolf pointedly sits much further away with his back turned to them.

As explosive and noticeable as Keith can be in his anger when the situation calls for it, he’s a quiet kind of upset right now. Shiro can still easily read the hurt radiating from him, though—noticeable in the tense line of Keith’s shoulders and the clench of his jaw as he crosses his arms, glaring at nothing off in the distance.

Something’s so obviously wrong, Shiro can’t even be distracted anymore by the fact that Keith’s wearing shorts. They’re beige, with the most godawful design, and have at least five too many pockets than any man could ever need. But they also stop just a little above mid-thigh, and Shiro’s only human. He’s been sneaking glances at his husband’s legs all afternoon and with every peek at Keith’s calves, Shiro has felt increasingly more in need of a glass of cold water—completely unrelated to the summer heat from the sun high in the sky.

Now Keith extends his legs right next to him, and Shiro’s eyes stray traitorously to the boney shape of his knees and the short dark hair there. Until Keith sighs and slumps forward, reminding Shiro that his husband is clearly miserable about something.

“Keith,” Shiro says. He puts his hand on Keith’s shoulder and pulls his gaze back up to Keith’s face. “What’s—”

“Shiro! Keith!”

Both of them snap their heads up at the sound of Lance’s voice. The rest of the Paladins, along with Coran, come walking across the garden, waving at them enthusiastically.

Shiro squeezes Keith’s shoulder before he reluctantly withdraws his touch to wave back with a smile as genuine as he can muster up.

“Ah, so here’s where you fellows went,” Coran says as the little group stops in front of them, under the tallest branches of the peach tree. Coran gingerly plucks at the lettuce on his plate of food, like he’s never seen a vegetable until now and he’s highly suspicious of it, before he puts it back down with a twitch of his moustache. “This is a nice little spot you’ve found yourselves out here in the shade.”

Hunk wordlessly slips Keith a plate with a perfectly done burger on it, because the guy’s got some hidden superhero sense when it comes to keeping track of who has or hasn’t eaten yet.

“Oh.” Keith lifts his eyebrows in surprise as he takes the plate and murmurs a quiet, “Thank you so much, Hunk.”

Hunk simply smiles, then busies himself with hauling Pidge up onto his shoulders to help her in her quest to pick a perfect peach from the tree.

“What’s up with Mr Grumpy-Pants over there?” Lance says and throws a cucumber slice their way.

“What the hell, Lance?” Keith jumps when it lands in his hair. He reaches for it, but Shiro gets there faster and picks it off of Keith’s head with his Altean hand.

Barely bothering to watch as he does it, Shiro lets his hand zap away to the big enclosure on the other side of the garden where Hunk’s youngest nephews’ bunnies are hopping around in the grass, and drops the cucumber there.

“Keith,” Shiro finally repeats once his arm has returned to its natural place at Shiro’s right side. Because whether Lance is throwing cucumber slices at Keith or not while asking about it, he did have a point in wondering what’s going on with him. Shiro scoots even closer, enough so that their sides are touching and he can put his palm on Keith’s knee. Which is entirely for Keith’s benefit, and not at all because Shiro’s still sneaking glances at Keith’s calves, fingers itching to slide further down and stroke through the coarse hair on them. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

Keith pauses, but a moment later his breath shakes out of him. “So. I…” he starts, the words practically hissed out from between his teeth before his bottom lip wobbles. “I have something I have to tell you guys.”

Shiro’s eyes widen, his brows drawing together in concern. No amount of exposed skin of Keith’s body—however covered in fuzzy black hair it might be—would be enough to entice him out of his worrying anymore. Because Keith looks two seconds away from _crying_.

“Hey… hey, hey, hey,” Shiro says and takes Keith’s left hand to hold in both of his own. His thumb automatically finds the wedding band on Keith’s finger and rubs over it, a habit Shiro quickly picked up on doing after he had first put the ring there eight months ago. “What’s going on, Keith?”

“The wolf— _Kosmo_ ,” Keith says, and a collective gasp of shock follows from the small crowd of people around them, “has finally told me what he wants to be called.”

Shiro’s thumb pauses in its movement. “Oh.”

“Wait, what?” Hunk whirls around to face them, making Pidge squawk in surprise. She clamps her hands in his hair and glares down at Hunk over being interrupted from grabbing the peach she was reaching for, but then she snaps her head up to look at Keith as well.

“…Yeah,” she says and squints her eyes, “what do you mean he’s _told_ you?”

“What do you mean what do I mean?” Keith frowns. “I mean just that. He’s told me his name now.”

“Now hang on a sec.” Lance holds up a hand and shakes his head. “Are you trying to tell us that Kosmo seriously _talks_ _to you?”_

Oh boy.

Shiro squeezes Keith’s hand reassuringly with his own.

“Yeah?” Keith says and looks around at all of them. “Why are you guys acting so surprised? I’ve told you about this before.”

“Yeah, but I thought you were just—you know.”

Keith stares blankly at Lance, a sure way to tell that he does, in fact, not know. “Just _what?”_

“I think, perhaps, we all assumed you were simply being—” Allura gently tilts her head from side to side, searching for the right word, “—a little _Keith_ about the whole thing?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Keith squints his eyes. His hand grips tighter around Shiro’s.

“That we didn’t think you meant it _literally_ , Keith,” Lance says.

“Agreed,” Coran says, still poking around at the various things on his plate. “Even I have not heard of such a thing being possible before. Although now that you mention it, this does remind me of how, as a toddler, I would always find myself—”

“I told you guys that ‘he’ll tell me when he’s ready’,” Keith interrupts Coran, and Shiro wishes it was his prosthetic hand that Keith was holding, because the way Keith squeezes it is starting to hurt a little. “ _That’s_ what I said. _Literally_. What else could I have meant by that?”

For a long moment, the only thing heard around them is the background noise of bird song and Hunk’s family laughing in the distance.

“Weeell,” Pidge finally breaks the silence when no one seems to have an answer for Keith. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose before she hugs Hunk’s face, wrapping her arms under his chin, and fires off an innocent smile. “To be fair, you say a _lot_ of odd shit, Keith.”

“In a good way!” Hunk adds, nodding frantically, despite having Pidge on his shoulders and practically being stuck in a cuddled-up sort of headlock. “Love you for it, buddy, but. Still, we, uh. Did not think you could seriously talk to your wolf. No. Nope.”

“I don’t get how you guys thought there was any other way I could have meant it!”

“Ow,” Shiro whispers. Keith startles and immediately eases up on his grip on Shiro’s hand. He rubs the back of it instead while shooting Shiro an apologetic glance.

“He’s a _wolf_ ,” Lance points out, and Keith turns his attention back to him.

“And we’re best friends.”

“The power of friendship does not give people the ability to talk to animals, Keith.” Lance throws another cucumber slice at him—Shiro sees it coming this time and catches it in the air, gently placing it on the ground next to them instead. “This isn’t a cartoon, and despite what you always pick for your backstory during Monsters and Mana, you’re not _actually_ a runaway prince.”

“We’ve all been flying around for years in giant robot lions,” Keith fires back, “that communicate with us through a bond not even Allura or Coran can fully explain. We’ve lived in space, I am an _alien_ , some of us have been inside the stomach of a _weblum_ —”

“Don’t remind me, man.” Hunk shudders.

“—this is far from the weirdest thing that’s happened to any of you!”

“Still didn’t think you could talk to your friggin’ wolf,” Lance mutters and takes a big bite of his now cucumber-less burger. Still chewing, he says around his mouthful, “How come he never talks to anyone else?”

“Because he’s shy,” Keith says, like that one should be obvious. Which it is to Shiro, since he’s known about it the whole time. But it’s pretty amusing to watch everyone else’s reactions.

“See,” Lance says. “That right there. You’re doing the thing again. You’re being _Keith_ about it.”

Keith’s frown deepens, and while Shiro’s sad that his husband seems a bit hurt about it all, Shiro is also so, _so_ in love, and really, he just wants to kiss Keith’s pout away until he has him smiling again.

Still.

While ‘kissing Keith’ will always be at the top of Shiro’s list of what any sane man should prioritize to do if they have the option—sometimes there are other things one must let come first.

Such as finally finding out the mystery of what your husband’s space wolf is named.

“Alright, alright,” Shiro says and jiggles Keith’s hand a little with his own to get his attention. “So—what was it? What did he tell you?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Lance nods, thankfully shifting his focus from trying to keep up the bickering. “What’s wolfie’s name?”

“Aww.” Pidge pouts and rests her chin on top of Hunk’s head. “Dunno if I’m ready to find out. I liked Kosmo.”

“Me too,” Hunk agrees. “We’ve been calling him that for over a year now. Is he still cool with us keeping that up, for those of us who like it?”

“Well, whatever it is, we  _do_  know that Keith isn’t more pleased with what the wolf went with than he’s been with ‘Kosmo’ so far, at least,” Allura says. Keith ducks his head and raises his shoulders, like he wants to sink through the ground. “That much is clear.”

“Bet it’s something totally lame,” Lance says. “Like Alfonso, or Todd.”

“ _Todd?_ ” Shiro can’t stop himself from laughing.

“Hey, he’s Keith’s wolf and he talks. Clearly his name is going to be something weird.”

“Keith’s not weird,” Shiro says, a hint of sternness added to his voice, even though he knows Keith doesn’t need anyone to defend him, “and neither is Ko—the wolf.”

“No, don’t get me wrong,” Lance says, “I respect both Keith and Kosmo, they’re cool dudes. Still, can’t deny that it’s in a really weird sorta—”

“Alright!” Hunk interrupts. “Enough of all that, _and_ enough with the suspense. Keith. Hit us with it.”

Keith mutters something, but it’s so quiet it mostly sounds like, “Se’smos’ine.”

“What?” Shiro furrows his brows and leans in closer. “Sessmozine?”

That’s a bit of an odd name.

Even for a cool drooly space wolf that likes to hog the blankets whenever he’s allowed up on the bed.

“No, I _said—_ ” Keith buries his face in his hands for a second before dropping them again, and looks up at everyone with a pained expression, “—that he said Kosmo is perfectly fine.”

“Wait wait wait!” Pidge doesn’t let any silence stretch between them this time before she starts to laugh. “Are you telling us you’ve been refusing to use that name for _over a year_ , and Kosmo actually _likes_ it?”

Hunk chuckles too, and then there’s no stopping the rest of them—everyone else joins in, only laughing harder when Keith just keeps glaring at them all. Allura snorts so loudly a piece of burger flies out of her mouth and lands in the grass at Shiro’s feet and Shiro can’t hold back his own giggle over Allura’s scandalized expression. Soon he’s laughing so much he has to clutch his own stomach, even though all of them mostly laugh at each other for laughing. It only takes one glance from Shiro at Keith, and then Keith breaks too. He finally laughs as well, while burying his face behind his hands as he shakes his head.

“So wait, wait—how does this even work, exactly?” Lance gets out between moments of snickering. “You just like, what, seriously talk to him? In English? Or is it like with the lions? Wait—does he have like a fancy British accent? What does he _sound_ like?”

“I am officially done talking about this now!” Keith drops his hands to pick up the discarded cucumber slice lying next to him, grinning triumphantly when he throws it and it lands flat on Lance’s cheek.

“…But not done talking with your weird wolf, I guess,” Lance says while the cucumber slides off his face and falls onto the ground. Lance looks down, squinting his eyes at it for a moment, like he’s considering if it’ll be worth the trouble to pick it up and throw it back at Keith again. Then he takes another bite of his burger instead, and Shiro almost feels proud. The guy truly has matured in the past couple of years. “What do you guys even talk about? Is he like some wise old dude or something?”

“Oh, I bet he has the most amazing things to tell us about,” Allura says. “I do wish you’d let us known about this sooner, Keith.”

“I _did_ let you guys know about it,” Keith reminds her.

“I second that, Princess,” Coran says, ignoring Keith. “Do you imagine he’d be willing to make a guest appearance on my podcast?”

“I bet they just sit around braiding each other’s fur while Keith talks about how cute he thinks Shiro is,” Pidge says. “And that’s all they do.”

“I don’t have fur, and I talk to Shiro about how cute I think Shiro is,” Keith says, deadpan and serious, and Shiro can’t help the dopey grin he gives Keith.

“ _Yuck_ ,” Lance mutters and pops the last piece of his burger into his mouth.

“Can’t believe you guys didn’t believe me.” Keith scoffs again, rolling his eyes.

“I believed you, babe,” Shiro says, even though he really is thankful to know that Kosmo likes being called—well, _Kosmo_.

Shiro had accidentally slipped up and called him ‘Kosmo’ one time after everyone else had started doing it, even though Keith had remained firm about how that was not a thing that was going to stick around.

The wide-eyed heartbroken look of betrayal Keith had given Shiro when it happened still counts as one of Shiro’s top five worst moments of his life. He definitely had _not_ held back on his urge to kiss Keith’s pout away that day.

There might have also been an incredibly enthusiastic blowjob following it, where Shiro channeled all of his love and respect for his husband into it. Just to _truly_ prove his dedication to making Keith a happy man.

Which Shiro would be glad to do any day, for any reason.

But there’s no denying how satisfying it was to know he’d been forgiven from the way Keith had his head thrown back on their bed, with both of his legs flung over Shiro’s shoulders. Instead of pouting, Keith had moaned at the ceiling while his fingers tangled tightly in Shiro’s bangs to guide Shiro’s head up and down before he came in Shiro’s mouth.

“Stop sucking up to him, Shiro,” Lance says and Shiro startles out of his thoughts. “We all know you’re in love, you don’t always have to be gross about it.”

“He’s not gross,” Keith says, but his voice is perfectly neutral, without the slightest hint of annoyance. Like it’s such a given that Keith  _has_  to point it out, but it’d be ridiculous to actually waste energy arguing about it.

“Thank you, baby,” Shiro says and gives him another smitten smile. Keith smiles back and lifts Shiro’s arm so he can duck under it and snuggle up against his side. Shiro wraps it around Keith’s shoulders and pulls him closer.

“ _Please_ don't climb up in his lap and make out just to prove a point again,” Lance begs. “Don’t do that to me, Keith. I can’t go through it another time, not again.”

For a second Keith looks like it’s worth considering to take Lance’s words as a dare, but in the end he settles for simply leaning a little more firmly against Shiro’s side.

Which Shiro is, if he’s being honest, thankful for.

As much as he loves kissing Keith—would love to do it anywhere and everywhere, anytime—having Lance as both the motivator for it _and_ their audience is hardly an aphrodisiac.

Plus, Keith always gets so into it. Then, no matter how much Shiro tries to behave around people, he’ll lose himself in it, too. Keith makes it far too easy for Shiro’s brain to forget about everything except for how perfect his husband is.

They’ve even had to try to strictly limit their PDA since getting together—to the point where they spent a whole afternoon one time sorting the ways they can touch each other into different categories.

There’s the obvious, what’s okay to do when others are nearby and Shiro and Keith are directly in their line of vision (shoulder touches, hand-holding, some gentle snuggling—kissing is okay as well, but anything with tongue _needs_ to be shorter than five seconds or else they’re all doomed).

And then there’s what’s okay to do when people are nearby but they can’t actually see Shiro and Keith, because they’re separated by the convenient door of whatever closet on the ATLAS they’ve locked themselves in or something (kissing with as much tongue involved as their hearts desire, heavy groping, grinding, one of them getting on their knees for the other—anything is fair game as long as they both manage to stay quiet).

Last but not least is what will always be Shiro’s favourite category—the things they only do when they’re completely alone.

Keith might look incredible with Shiro’s palm clamped over his mouth to help Keith keep down his noises while Shiro smirks and has his ways with him—when Shiro’s free hand is shoved down into Keith’s pants and Keith’s eyes have rolled back, and his breath keeps hitching. But there’s still nothing Shiro loves more than when he gets to make sure that Keith is as loud as possible for him. When Shiro has him spread out in the solitude of their home and Keith is moaning and begging for his big—

“Shiro!”

“Hm?” Shiro startles out of his thoughts, his ears no doubt already burning red when he blinks up at Lance. He does his best to ignore it and act like he definitely wasn’t thinking about what he was thinking about. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Lance just stares at him for a long moment. “ _Urgh_. I have no idea how, and I don’t want to know, but I can’t believe you’re both—the way you are.”

“They really will find a way to find any situation—ehrm.” Hunk clears his throat. “Well, yeah. They really are the way they _are_.”

Shiro looks at Keith where he’s sitting next to him, finding Keith’s cheeks flushed red as well, and Shiro can’t help but grin at him.

So maybe Shiro wasn’t the only one whose mind trailed off.

“How long is the honeymoon phase supposed to last, anyway?” Pidge says from where she’s still sitting up on Hunk’s shoulders.

“Dunno,” Hunk says as he turns around and starts walking away from Shiro and Keith with Lance at his side. Shiro peeks around, finding that Allura and Coran have already left, both of them now sitting crouched down and cuddling with the bunnies in their enclosure at the other end of the garden. The last thing he catches Hunk say is, “With those two? Wouldn’t surprise me if the honeymoon never ended.”

“Hey,” Keith says next to him, and Shiro looks back at his face. “It’s cute how hard you’ve tried, you know.”

“What?”

Keith smiles softly. “To not use the name Kosmo for him.”

“Oh.” Shiro huffs out a breath, lifting his hand to put it in Keith’s hair, leaning in to press a kiss to the top of his husband’s head. “I’m sorry your son didn’t pick a name you liked more.”

“He’s not my _son_.” Keith laughs and elbows Shiro gently in the side—but Shiro has seen the way Kosmo falls asleep on his back in Keith’s lap while they’re cuddled up on the couch, so he stands by it. “He’s like… my buddy. And I respect his wishes. What would’ve been the point in waiting otherwise?”

Shiro hums thoughtfully. “You just… think he could’ve told us right away.”

“Yeah,” Keith says, his cheeks going a little pink again. “Maybe.”

“So why did he wait so long? Did he want to try it out first, or…?”

Keith scoffs. “He said it’s because he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to spell it with a K or a C—he picked K, by the way, so now I’ll have to remember to tell Lance about that too. Maybe he’ll actually start spelling it right.”

Shiro can’t help it, he laughs again, and then lifts the arm not around Keith’s shoulders to cup Keith’s chin in his hand, pulling him in for a soft kiss.

“So…” Shiro says, dropping his hand from Keith’s face to Keith’s hairy calf, finally letting himself stroke his palm up and down the whole length of it. “Guess lunch is just you and me now when we’ve scared everyone away? Wanna call your buddy Kosmo over here and make up, then make out with your husband in the shade of this cool peach tree I found once he’s left again?”

“Oh you just found this tree, huh?” Keith scrunches his nose as he chuckles and then glances over to where Kosmo is still sitting in the same spot with his back turned to them. Keith looks back at Shiro, their faces so close their noses almost touch as he does, a smile still on his face. “Hey... did you know—as long as no one’s on this side of the tree, you can’t really see what two people leaning back against it are up to.”

Shiro chuckles softly, stroking the tip of his nose against Keith’s own. “Really now?” he murmurs, and Keith grins when he leans in for the kiss, Shiro smiling into it too.

“Sounds like a nice afternoon to me,” Keith says once they pull back, and Shiro straightens up a little, looking over at Kosmo again.

“Hey, Kosmo!” he calls out, watching as one ear flicks at Shiro using his—now official—name. “C’mere, you big fluffy baby.”

Kosmo doesn’t react to that, though.

“We’ve got a burger for you,” Keith tries, but Kosmo is as unmoving as a statue.

“Actual meat,” Shiro clarifies. “No veggie food for you, I promise.”

Kosmo lifts his head a little, but still doesn’t turn around fully.

“And _cheese_ ,” Keith adds teasingly in a sing-song voice.

That’s the last thing needed to convince him—in seconds Kosmo has teleported over to them, sitting next to Keith’s side and looking at them both with his big dark eyes.

“Hiya, buddy,” Keith says, lifting one hand to scratch behind Kosmo’s ear. Shiro picks up the plate with the burger he’s saved for him since earlier, handing it to Keith who places it on the ground. Kosmo looks a little suspiciously between them both until Keith huffs and reaches up again to ruffle his head. “Eat your food, Kosmo. It’s already cold.”

The use of his name seems to be what Kosmo was waiting for, and he gives Keith a slobbery kiss right on Keith’s face before he settles down on the ground. He happily gulps down his burger in one bite, looking proud of himself as he glances back up at them.

Shiro laughs, tugging at Keith until he moves to sit between Shiro’s spread legs instead, so Keith can lean against him with his back to Shiro’s chest. “I think Kosmo’s nice,” Shiro murmurs as he wraps his arms around Keith’s front, hugging him close.

“Me too,” Keith agrees. “ _Even_ if I’ve spent over a year fighting anyone who has tried to call him that to defend his honour.”

Shiro chuckles again, burying his nose in Keith’s soft hair to breathe him in, before pressing a kiss to the top of his head as Keith lifts his hands to hold Shiro’s forearm where it’s wrapped around him.

Kosmo shuffles a little closer too, lying down next to Shiro’s side with his head resting on his big paws, glancing up at them with a sigh when Shiro and Keith both look at him.

The wolf is as quiet as usual to Shiro, but Keith studies him for a long moment, a small smile spreading on his face as he looks at Kosmo.

Shiro settles back against the peach tree once more, closing his eyes at the sun, and holding his husband in his arms, he smiles too.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarcubeshiro) if you feel like stopping by <3


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